All spoilers on this page for Infinity War or the 18 Marvel movies that preceded it are left unmarked. The only marked spoilers involve spoilers for other works. You Have Been Warned!
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Tropes A to L
- Accidental Aesop: Many saw an Aesop that Love Is a Weakness; the heroes unwillingness to sacrifice loved ones, hesitation to do so until too late, and letting their emotions get in the way repeatedly causes them to fail to stop Thanos while Thanos's willingness to sacrifice loved ones and hesitating at nothing resulting in him getting everything he wanted. The next movie goes for the opposite message, which wouldn't be the case if the Aesop here was intentional.
- Alternative Joke Interpretation:
- Stan Lee's cameo has him as the driver of the school bus Peter Parker is riding on. After the kids panic to distract from having him become Spider-Man, Lee says "You act like you've never seen a spaceship before." People have come up with two interpretations for this line: he's either referring to the invasion from The Avengers (2012) or the fact that his other cameos have had him travelling through space.
- Peter Parker telling Quill that Footloose is not a great movie. One interpretation is that he has seen the original film and did not enjoy it as much as Quill did, given that’s it’s generally seen as cheesy, whereas Quill would have more nostalgia for it. The other is that Peter, being born in the 2000s, believed Quill was referring to the divisive 2011 remake of the film and was not aware of the 80s version. Though the latter interpretation seems unlikely given Peter's own movie references tend to be 80s films (The Empire Strikes Back, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Aliens).
- Aluminum Christmas Trees: Eitri the Dwarf King is over ten feet tall, which actually alludes to the theory that Norse dwarfs in the original myths weren't literally short of stature, but lesser mythical creatures, and that Christianization turned it into their iconic literal shortness. Due to actor Peter Dinklage's type of dwarfism, however, his limbs are still disproportionately short compared to the likes of Thor.
- Americans Hate Tingle: In Japan, the film got eclipsed
by Case Closed's 22nd Non-Serial Movie Zero the Enforcer despite Infinity War premiering on the former's 3rd week. Western superheroes as a whole aren't as well received in Japan and it's been noted that the local advertising for it is a complete mess. - And You Thought It Would Fail: Minor case regarding critical reception. Shortly before the film came out, Mark Millar opined that Thanos would be a weak Big Bad since he is a CGI villain, citing the mixed to negative reception to Doomsday, Steppenwolf, and Ultronnote who were all CG-created as well. When the film came out, Thanos was generally considered to quite-possibly be the strongest point of the movie, owing to both Josh Brolin's performance and the amazing efforts put into his CG.
- Angst Aversion:
- Most of the critical and fan response has been positive, but a number of reviews have opined that the movie often gets overwhelming and excessively depressing at times, such as the massacre of many Asgardian refugees, the deaths of Loki and Gamora, Thanos' string of unstoppable Curbstomp Battles practically making him a script-mandated Invincible Villain, and the outright Downer Ending killing off half of all the inhabitants of the universe. The main factor stopping it from being Too Bleak, Stopped Caring is knowing in advance that Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel, and Avengers: Endgame are coming next, which would involve the protagonists (including one who we haven't met before) at least achieving some kind of a bounce-back from the Darkest Hour of the MCU (to date, anyways).
- This ended up being a source of some controversy in South Korea since, in a rather bad case of Woolseyism, Strange's line of "We're in the endgame now" is mistranslated/subtitled as "We're doomed", effectively killing a good portion of the audience's perception of the movie and the future of the MCU as a whole.
- Angst? What Angst?:
- War Machine doesn't seem the slightest bit upset or angry to see the Falcon or the Vision despite them being indirectly (the Falcon) and directly (the Vision) responsible for him breaking his back, losing the use of his legs, and almost dying after the airport battle in Captain America: Civil War. Don Cheadle has said that he believes Rhodey, the character, understands this was an accident and stuff like that are part of the job. Hilariously, he said, he himself, as the actor, blames Vision for the incident.
- Bruce is perfectly okay with fighting alongside Scarlet Witch, the person he stated he'd be outright happy killing for traumatizing him back in Age of Ultron. Of course, in this case, it frankly wasn't the time nor place to bring it up if Bruce did have any qualms.
- Anvilicious: Achieving a high-end goal almost always require a sacrifice. This idea is consistently conveyed across the entire film between both the protagonist (Thanos) and the antagonists (The Avengers).
- Archive Panic: To make most of the movie, you should have watched ideally all previous 18 movies, the first of which dates back to 2008. This gives a total runtime of over 38 hours. You could get by just on The Avengers (2012) (for the Tesseract, Loki's Scepter, and the Battle of New York), Thor: The Dark World (for the Aether), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) (for the Collector, the Guardians themselves, and the Orb), Avengers: Age of Ultron (for the Mind Stone, Wanda, and Vision), Captain America: Civil War (for the introduction of Spider-Man and Black Panther, why the Avengers have split up, and why Wanda and Vision are shacking up off the radar), and Doctor Strange (2016) (for magic existing in the MCU and the Eye of Agamotto), but even then, you'd be missing huge swaths of information that are varying degrees of relevant. Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther (2018) are optional, but helpful, as the end of Ragnarok leads directly into Infinity War, and Black Panther sets up Wakanda and its characters, where the bulk of the third act takes place. That's still, at a minimum, over twelve hours of movie-watching to understand this movie.
- Award Snub:
- Despite being heralded by many as one of the best Marvel films and an incredible achievement, the film was only nominated for one Oscar, that being Best Visual Effects, and it lost to First Man, something most viewers felt was odd given how one of the praises for Infinity War was how good it looked, while First Man looks less impressive as by comparison. Josh Brolin not being even a nominee for Best Supporting Actor rubbed people the wrong away as well, as many felt his performance as Thanos is what brought him to life as a character.
- A lot of people feel that Zoe Saldaña and/or Elizabeth Olsen should have won many of the Best Actress audience awards for this movie instead of Scarlett Johansson, due to the latter having very little screentime or plot relevance compared to the former two.
- Given Black Panther (2018)'s Best Picture nomination, those who thought this film was better felt it should have gotten the nomination too, if not instead of.
- Audience-Coloring Adaptation: Most comic book fans have known Thanos for the longest time as a hammy schemer who is obsessed with the Anthropomorphic Personification of the concept of Death. This movie instead brought to pop culture the perception of Thanos as a stoic warlord who is obsessed with balance and equilibrium.
- Badass Decay: In previous films, the Hulk was considered to be The Dreaded and The Juggernaut by everyone, and the "strongest Avenger" despite Thor's insistence otherwise. Here, he quickly gets worfed to showcase how powerful Thanos is. Granted, it is Thanos. But Hulk subsequently spends the rest of the film refusing to go out and instead leaves the fighting to Banner.
- Broken Base: The filmmakers' decision to forgo the introduction of Smart Hulk in this film has been an interesting topic of debate. One half of the fanbase believes the decision makes sense, as it would've been tonally incorrect to show off right before the film's infamous Downer Ending, while the other half believes that them introducing Professor Hulk in Endgame felt rushed and had little emotional value for such an important event. This deleted scene popping up on the internet years later only furthered the discussion.
- Cargo Ship:
- Thanos/Infinity Gauntlet, or Thanos/Infinity Stones, to the surprise of absolutely no one.
- Star-Lord/Bubbles or Star-Lord/Fucking Everything Up.
- Gamora/The Ground.
- Rocket/Prosthetics
- Catharsis Factor:
- Thor making a Dynamic Entry and driving Stormbreaker right into Thanos's chest at the climax of the film can feel wholly deserved after watching the Mad Titan lay waste to every hero in his way up until that point. Unfortunately, the attack doesn't prevent Thanos from carrying out his Badass Fingersnap, bringing on the Downer Ending, and getting away a Karma Houdini.
- Just seeing Iron Man's team fighting alongside the Guardians is worth the price of admission all by itself. Then there's the fact that they come the closest to actually beating Thanos, even though they fail at the last minute. The fact that Iron Man then goes one-on-one with Thanos, holds his own for more than a few minutes, and actually makes him bleed is equally satisfying to watch.
- The Children of Thanos are all such bastards that it's extremely satisfying whenever one of them is given a gruesome death scene.
- As it turns out, The Red Skull suffered a fate worse than death. Seeing him so broken and a shell of his former self is very deeply satisfying after all the atrocities he committed in World War II.
- Wanda jumping onto the battlefield and effortlessly wiping out half of Thanos's forces, as well as Okoye's fantastic Leaning on the Fourth Wall line:"Why was she up there all this time?"
- Continuity Lock-Out:
- The first trailer, at a bare minimum, requires audience familiarity with The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, and Thor: Ragnarok, since most of the on-screen action (the divided Avengers, the Tesseract, the Power Stone in the Gauntlet, Vision and the Mind Stone, Doctor Strange, Wong and the Sanctum, and the coda with Thor and the Guardians) depends on the audience knowing them.
- Likewise, the Infinity Gauntlet that Thanos sports has only appeared on-screen in the credits of Age of Ultron, while its only other quasi-appearance was an Easter Egg Freeze-Frame Bonus in Thor that was retconned in Ragnarok. And that's not including the fact that all the films listed above in turn also require familiarity with their predecessor films, particularly Thor and Winter Soldier in order to make sense. In other words, in order to have context for everything going on in Infinity War, you need to have watched the previous 18 MCU films.
- People who haven't seen Captain America: The First Avenger in particular will be wondering what the hell is the significance of that weird noseless red-faced guy who was guarding the Soul Stone. (Or: "What is that guy◊ from Diablo II doing there?")
- This proved relevant to the critical response, since most of the negative reception was drawn from critics who lacked the emotional connection to the franchise and characters. This has led to subsequent discussion about the merits of the MCU as individual films versus a larger cinematic universe. James Gunn criticized these critics' reasoning, likening it to a viewer watching a TV series for the first time and starting with one of its later seasons.
- Crack Pairing:
- Thanks to ending the movie stranded together, Tony/Nebula saw quite a surge in popularity.
- Thanos and the ratio 1/2, thanks to his obsession with balance. It's gotten to the point where his comic counterpart's obsession with Death (which was also pretty infamous) has become all but overshadowed.
- Crosses the Line Twice: Even the "Avengers: Infinity War" title in the end credits turns into dust, and the last thing at the end of the stinger showing people elsewhere turning into dust is "Thanos will return" instead of the usual "[X/The Avengers] will return". They're basically rubbing salt in the wound after The Bad Guy Wins. This can feel darkly humorous as well as depressing.
- Death of the Author: Despite Word of God stating that Hulk refusing to emerge as a way to assert his agency to Bruce and force him to fight his own fights, his refusal has been interpreted as the result of the trauma of suffering his first defeat at the hands of Thanos.
- Discredited Meme: Despite fan demand, the Russos refused to use a "No shit, Sherlock" joke involving Iron Man and Dr. Strange, as it would be "too obvious". Cumberbatch himself said it would be "corny".
- Draco in Leather Pants: While Thanos is given more depth than one expects, and there is a certain amount of sympathy in his backstory (although just how much is up to interpretation), many people seem to forget that, regardless of his motivations or whether Evil Is Cool, he is still a genocidal madman who willfully murders half of the population of the universe as soon as he possesses the means to do so. In particular, they offer him a lot of sympathy because he's sad after Gamora dies, completely ignoring the fact that he himself willingly sacrificed her for power. There's even a subreddit literally called "Thanos Did Nothing Wrong".
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Out of all the Children of Thanos (called the Black Order in the comics), Ebony Maw (the only one named in dialogue, just as "the Maw") is considered to be the most popular. His telekinetic powers make him unique among his group who are primarily fighters, and his role as a Hammy Herald gives him the most fleshed out personality of all of the Order. Comic book fans were disappointed by him being the first of the Order to die.
- The Stonekeeper, AKA the new form of the Red Skull, appeared only briefly but was a massive hit with audiences thanks to his cool personality, mysterious powers and role, and the sheer surprise of seeing him back and in such a different form.
- Epileptic Trees:
- After the movie was released, some comic fans began speculating that the child Gamora with Thanos in the ending is in fact his Mistress Death, otherwise Adapted Out, taking her form.
- Banner's inability to transform into the Hulk (and suspicious level of knowledge about the Infinity Stones) has led some viewers to theorize that the Banner sent to Earth is actually Loki disguised as him.
- The fact that Dr. Strange and Loki both offer up Infinity Stones in order to save a comrade (the Tesseract for Thor and the Time Stone for Tony, respectively) in almost exactly the same manner, complete with very similar lines afterwards, has become a flashpoint of speculation, since both are explicitly sorcerers and the scenes are far too similar to be coincidental. Some people have even suggested that Loki and Dr. Strange were actually in contact with one another during the film, and have taken it as an indication of various magical shenanigans to be explained in the sequel.
- Estrogen Brigade:
- Chris Evans' bearded look has drawn a lot of attention, with many noting the Beard of Sorrow trope fails to signify its intent on account of how much it suits him. Quite a few fans were actually disappointed he didn't have it in the sequel.
- This is nowhere more evident than in the reaction to the character posters for Captain America◊ and Bucky◊ that show their backsides to the camera.
- Evil Is Cool:
- Thanos, in the eyes of the fans, definitely lived up to the hype that had been building him up to be for the past six years since his debut in The Avengers. The movie already starts off with him giving a brutal beatdown to the Hulk with minimal effort, so much so that it actually left the Hulk too scared to transform back for the rest of the film. From there it goes From Bad to Worse for the heroes, where despite a couple of Hope Spots, Thanos ends up dealing one No-Holds-Barred Beatdown after another to everyone from Badass Normals to Reality Warpers alike on his way to The Bad Guy Wins. It helps that Josh Brolin gave an incredibly charismatic performance and Thanos was given surprisingly deep characterization and many scenes dedicated entirely to himself and his philosophy, making the movie about him as much as it is about the Avengers.
- The Children of Thanos are seen as this as well. Their intimidating and unique designs, plus their variety of powers, show that they are not just Thanos's "hype men", but legitimate threats on their own.
- Fan Nickname:
- "Punished Cap" for Captain America. His "debranded" costume is often referred to as the "Nomad suit."
- "The Snappening" or "the Snapture" for Thanos's Badass Fingersnap and the resulting casualties.
- Alternatively, just simply "The Snap" is common.
- Fan-Preferred Cut Content: Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight were stated by their actors to be married to each other similar to their comic book counterpart. This was not mentioned in the film (along with their names, only in the credits) and them being killed off prevented any kind of development.
- Fanfic Fuel:
- When did Wanda and Vision start meeting each other in secret, and how did their relationship progress?
- How were the likes of the Defenders, the Runaways, and any other MCU TV heroes affected by half the life in the universe being wiped out?
- The 14 million alternate futures that Doctor Strange saw are ripe for speculation.
- In pre-release interviews, Tom Holland claimed that "a lot had happened" to Peter in the interim between Spider-Man: Homecoming and this movie, and that Peter had grown up a lot as a result. Indeed, Peter in this movie is much more competent than he was in his solo outing, leading some fans to assume that he had numerous street-level adventures against some members of his classic rogues gallery in the interim. Since all of the villains that have been used for non-MCU Spider-Man movies are off the table for future movies, Lizard, Sandman, and Electro are popular choices for bad guys in those fanfic adventures.
- The above "untold adventures" notion can be applied to many of the other MCU sub-groups; It has been over a year in-universe since we last saw Dr Strange, two years of wandering for all of the erstwhile Avengers members besides Tony, about the same span since T'Challa opened Wakanda to the world, and a touch less than 4 years since the Guardians offed Ego. The latter case in particular pleads for expansion, canonical or otherwise.
- At the film's end, Nebula is apparently going to be dropping Tony back on Earth before flying off to wherever she goes from here. They should have some interesting things to talk about on the way.
- How Nebula and Tony will even get back to Earth from Titan is ripe for speculation.
- How exactly did Thanos take the Power Stone from the Nova Corps in Xandar, and the Reality Stone from the Collector? And just how decimated is Xandar after Thanos' raid?
- In an unusual example, the film's conclusion has become this for several other fandoms. In the weeks following Infinity War's release, it became a common fanfic trope to take a list of characters from a particular work, flip a coin for each one to see if The Snap erased them, and have the survivors deal with the aftermath.
- Fans Prefer the New Her: Steve Rogers' Beard of Sorrow won over a bunch fans, female and male alike, and gets a lot of compliments for making Cap more badass. Sadly, the beard didn't stick with the character in the sequel.
- Friendly Fandoms:
- Some Warhammer 40,000 fans really enjoyed the movie thanks to the bleak tone, Thanos being considered a close analogue to the God-Emperor of Mankind and his minions' aesthetic resembling something straight out of their setting: Ebony Maw being similar to a Water Caste Tau, Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight looking close to Dark Eldar, and the Outriders resembling Genestealers.
- Surprisingly, a bizarre friendship has formed between MCU fans and American Horror Story fans due to the eigth season of that show having similarities such as a large crossover ensemble cast, return of old favorites, world-ending stakes and going unexpected routes. It helps that Ryan Murphy fully embraces and approves the comparisons, going so far as to reference it on instagram.
- Fountain of Memes: Just about everything Thanos does or says in Infinity War has become popular on the Internet.
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- People have joked that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate overtook Infinity War as the biggest crossover in history. It can be hard to look at back when we find out that the World Of Light story mode starts as the same as the film's climax. To make it even funnier, Endgame’s first trailer was released the exact same day as Ultimate’s launch.
- Tony's line "Wong, you're invited to my wedding!" becomes this when it was revealed that the codename for Tony Stark's funeral scene in Avengers: Endgame was "The Wedding". So Tony is essentially inviting Wong to his own funeral! And he actually ended up being there in Endgame!
- The joke in the second trailer about Okoye wanting a Starbucks in Wakanda became a little uncomfortable after an incident prior to the movie's release in which two black Starbucks customers were arrested after an employee called the police on them. The reaction to this was so strong that Starbucks announced they would close 8,000 locations for a day to put their employees through racial sensitivity training.
- The Running Gag about Rocket wanting to be the captain becomes this by the end, when all the other Guardians- including Quill, the actual captain- are killed by Thanos, and Rocket is the only one left standing.
- Dr. Strange's final lines, "Tony, there was no other way" becomes this after Avengers: Endgame when it's revealed that the single timeline where Thanos is defeated depended on Tony Stark performing a Heroic Sacrifice. What Stephen is doing in his final moments is apologizing to Tony for setting him on the path to his death.
- And before that, after Dr. Strange views the 14 million alternate futures, Tony asks "How many do we win?" Stephen looks Tony straight in the eyes for a few seconds before quietly telling him, "One." After Endgame, it's clear that the reason why Stephen took a Dramatic Pause before finally responding to Tony is because he realized that the one timeline where Thanos loses is where Tony sacrifices his life to save the Universe.
- And even before that, Dr. Strange tells Tony that if it's between saving him and Peter Parker versus the Universe, he would save the Universe. Which puts a darker light on Strange giving Thanos the stone to spare Tony, because he wasn't saving Tony — he was actively setting up Tony to be sacrificed for the Universe in the long run.
- The ending scenes on Titan become even harder to watch when you realize, while watching Avengers: Endgame, that those who get dusted feel like no time has passed between that fight and the final battle in Endgame, where Tony sacrifices himself. From their perspective, it feels like they've lost Tony within minutes of when they were all fighting alongside him.
- During the Avengers' brief skirmish with the Guardians of the Galaxy on Titan, Star-Lord offhandedly mentions that Thor, the link between the two groups, wasn't that good-looking and needed saving. This seems like a petty insult for the God of Thunder at the time for stealing Quill's thunder, but it now seems like unintentional foreshadowing come Avengers: Endgame, where Thor has become a gross, alcoholic overweight slob whom Rocket and Hulk need to rescue from his own destructive lifestyle.
- Infinity War had the theme that Love Is a Weakness, due to Thanos being willing to sacrifice Gamora but the Avengers repeatedly stating that they "don't trade lives". This becomes really hard to take because in Endgame the Avengers ultimately end up having to sacrifice even more lives to set things right, including some of the lives they'd previously refused to before.
- Gamora attempting to perform a Heroic Suicide to prevent Thanos from getting the Soul Stone is now for naught, as Endgame shows that a person committing suicide in front of the person who loves them counts as a sacrifice, whether they want it or not.
- Thor lampshades that he's seen Loki die before, and each time it's been a lie, but feels by instinct that this time his brother is gone for good. He knows logically that Loki would have enough self-preservation to rouse himself the minute Thor was left to die and drift in space. A later spinoff, Loki (2021) reveals that one version of Loki took this route, faking his death and exiling himself on a distant planet to wait out the war. Even worse, the guilt eventually caught up to him, but he was never able to reconcile with Thor because the minute he tried to return to space, the TVA caught up with him and sent him to the Void.
- Wanda and Vision's conversation before Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight ambush them in Scotland become this after watching "WandaVision" when you realize Vision was about to tell Wanda about the property he'd bought for them in Westview. Furthermore, Wanda having to sacrifice Vision for nothing is also this, as it is one of the factors that lead to her actions during WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Multiverse of Madness also reveals that, despite accepting that Vision is dead, the futility of his sacrifice is still a sore spot for her.
- Thanos’s justification for his culling of half the Earth’s population seems utterly insane to most people, with most people both in and out of universe claiming that his supposed fears of an overpopulation crisis are merely a selfish excuse for him to commit genocide on a universal scale. Then Eternals reveals that the Celestials were planning to use Earth’s massive population to cause the Emergence, which would’ve allowed a new Celestial to be born at the expense of the entire planet being completely destroyed. This means Thanos's fears weren't unfounded, and that humanity as a whole had five extra years to live before the Avengers undid his work in Avengers: Endgame.
- Strange's declaration that he would be willing to sacrifice both Tony and Peter for the sake of the universe was already harsh enough after Tony's death in this film's sequel. As of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Strange ends up having to erase everyone's memory of Peter to prevent the universe from collapsing in on itself, thus forcing Peter to lose everything he ever had in his life.
- For most of their interactions, Strange chastises Tony for not taking the threat against Thanos seriously enough and making jokes about the situation. Phase 4, the first post-Infinity Saga stage of the MCU, would come under heavy fire from critics and fans for most of its films and tv series having too many jokes and copious amounts of Mood Whiplash at the expense of undercutting their more serious moments, especially since the comedy that once made the franchise stand out amongst its competitors was considered too distracting to take their stories seriously. It becomes even harsher when one of those films to receive such a criticism was Strange's own sequel.
- Rocket becoming the Sole Survivor of the Guardians and watching Groot die becomes more tragic after watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, where Rocket similarly watches his True Companions die at the hands of a madman worse than Thanos. One could wonder if he was having flashbacks to that day.
- Also relating to Rocket is how Thor calls him a rabbit, due to not knowing what a raccoon is. With the reveal in Vol. 3 that one of Rocket's childhood friends was an uplifted cyborg rabbit who was murdered by The High Evolutionary's men, Thor's nickname stings much more now.
- Ned saying "We're all gonna die!" as he spots the alien ship above New York becomes this, given the ending.
- Heartwarming in Hindsight: Vision's last words to Wanda before he dies for the first time are a Dying Declaration of Love. A flashback sequence in WandaVision that took place between Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War has Vision offhandedly mentioning that he's never had a loved one to lose, meaning that Vision now understands Wanda's sorrow as he dies.
- He Panned It, Now He Sucks!: Lacey Baugher of The Mary Sue got quite a bit of flack for her article on how the movie "failed its women". Especially with her accusation that Gamora's arc was an overlong Stuffed in the Fridge plot.
- He's Just Hiding:
- Thanos lampshading the character's Joker Immunity doesn't do much to dispel any notions that Loki may have cheated death again. Hell, they joked about it twice, and he's had his death faked in two previous movies. Rule of Three? Jossed by Word of God. The Russos have said that Loki (at least at this point in time, on this unaltered timeline) is dead as a doornail. Endgame confirmed that he was Killed Off for Real.
- Some fans believe that Ebony Maw survived being Thrown Out the Airlock by Iron Man. The last we see of him is being frozen as he's left floating and frozen in space, but not explicitly shown to be killed by the vacuum of space given his telekinetic powers. The film earlier showed that Thor could survive being thrown into space and left there for a few hours, so why not Ebony Maw?
- It's also suspected that Gamora is still alive inside the Soul Stone, which is actually the child Gamora who Thanos sees at the end, and will be freed in the sequel. Likewise it's been theorized that many of the dead characters are actually inside the Soul Stone and could be freed, since several such "dead" characters have additional movies confirmed in the future. Avengers: Endgame Jossed it as the movie confirmed that there is no saving someone who was sacrificed for the Soul Stone.
- Not to mention thoughts that, like in the comics, the fingersnap will be undone in the next film.
- As Shuri wasn't seen disintegrating, a lot of fans at the time believed she was unaffected by the fingersnap. The trailer for Endgame confirmed her death, though of course she was revived with the rest of the universe.
- An example played for laughs; people believe that Drax simply went invisible by standing still rather than being erased from existence.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- It only took 10 months for another space-faring crossover to have Chris Pratt's inappropriately-timed rage result in the removal of himself, his friends, and countless innocents (including a crimefighter played by Cobie Smulders) from their world; Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi in particular suffers the LEGO equivalent of disintegration when her pieces separate. Except, after Lucy takes a jab at "those things with a downer cliffhanger ending", these disasters actually get resolved. Bonus points for Pratt voicing a Star-Lord Expy, and some lampshading on WB's inability to include any Marvel characters. Avengers: Endgame adds more bonus points, since both it and TLM2 have someone from another time period arrive to destroy the universe, only to vanish after the people he removed return to rally against him.
- Drax says that Thor's "a man" based on his impressive physique while Quill's less impressive build makes him "a dude". Come Avengers: Endgame and Thor now looks like the Dude.
- Also, Rocket tells Quill "You're one sandwich away from fat!" And then in Avengers: Endgame, Thor is the fat one, while Quill remains the fit one!
- As noted below, under Like You Would Really Do It, when the Guardians first encounter Thanos, Gamora ends up finishing him off pretty easily by stabbing him in the throat... only to realise that it was just an illusion. Come the sequel, Avengers: Endgame, Thanos is killed off in the first twenty minutes as Thor goes for the head and this time it sticks! He is later replaced by a past version of him in the final act.
- Small spoilers for "Endgame". Long before their daughter is born, Tony discusses a dream he had with Pepper about having a dream about having a boy named Morgan, which Pepper dismisses. With Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness revealing that dreams are actually a connection one makes to an alternate universe, this indicates that there really is a universe where Morgan was born male.
- Thanos, upon choking Loki, boasts "No resurrections this time." Sure enough, Loki (2021) would reveal that that series' protagonist didn't die and come back in order to be in that show.
- Rocket makes himself out to be the Captain of the Guardians to troll Quill. By the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, he really is.
- Hollywood Pudgy: Rocket says that Quill is just "one sandwich away from being fat". This is Chris Pratt shirtless. Additionally, Chris Pratt used to be pretty fat, and lost a lot of weight specifically to get in shape for the role of Star-Lord. At the very least, it's clear that Star-Lord isn't supposed to be even close to fat, and it's supposed to establish Star-Lord's (undeserved) Butt-Monkey status among the Guardians. Nevertheless, lots of people, including one Unshaved Mouse, took issue with this comment:"Chris Pratt has the kind of body that it is literally impossible to maintain unless a movie studio is paying you vast amounts of money to do nothing all day but train and eat grilled chicken and broccoli and now you’re trying to tell me he’s some kind of land whale you shut the hell up with that nonsense."
- Ho Yay:
- Drax is extremely appreciative of Thor's muscles and good looks. He refers to him as a cross between a pirate and an angel.
Drax: This is not a dude. You're a dude. This...this is a man. A handsome, muscular man.- The instant Cap spots Bucky, both of them immediately hug each other close with the biggest smiles of the entire movie. No matter which way you spin it, it's one of the movie's most heartwarming moments...
- ...which leads to a much darker moment: Bucky's last word is "Steve?", in confusion and fear, as he moves towards Cap before vanishing. And Steve—Captain America, the first Avenger, the guy who just took a punch from an Infinity Gauntlet and stayed standing—is so broken by Bucky's death that he can't say a word, just kneeling and touching the grass where Bucky used to be. If previous films weren't selling you hard enough on Bucky's status as essentially Steve's tragic love interest, this one will.
- According to Joe Russo and Sebastian Stan, Steve has visited Bucky in Wakanda prior to the events of this film...otherwise the hug itself would last "like half the runtime."
- On the same note: Bruce grabs Tony for a big hug on his return. The science bros are back!
- Speaking of Tony, he and Stephen Strange do get mighty close over the course of the film:
- After the Cloak of Levitation smacks him, Tony looks Stephen up and down before saying "I'm... going to allow that."
- Tony and Stephen repeatedly save each other from dangerous situations — Tony helping get rid of Maw while he was torturing Stephen, and later Stephen protects him and Peter when the ship crashes. You could even argue that Peter is like their surrogate son.
- Improved Second Attempt: Many comic readers were happy to see Adam Warlock Adapted Out of this film, as many people disliked how much of a Spotlight-Stealing Squad he was in lieu of other heroes, who were reduced to being cannon fodder against Thanos.
- Iron Woobie:
- Thor. He just keeps losing something in every film, yet he keeps going. He's lost his girlfriend, his best friend, his mother, his father, his friends, half of his people, his hammer, his realm, half the people he swore to protect, and his beloved younger brother. The guy has so little left after the film.
- Thanos himself. It's implied that he doesn't like what he is doing but genuinely feels like it's the only way to solve the Overpopulation Crisis. Throughout the film, he loses everyone close to him (The Black Order by being killed by the heroes and Gamora by throwing her off a cliff to get the soul stone), respectively. Despite all this, he doesn't stop until he gets all the Infinity Stones and kills off half of the universe's population with his Badass Fingersnap. He might be a Villain Protagonist and without a doubt the most dangerous person within the MCU by far, but it's hard not to feel bad for him.
- I Knew It!:
- Fan speculation that the Black Order would be involved dated at least back to an interview in 2015, where Joss Whedon stated that Thanos likely wouldn't be the only villain. They were finally proven right in 2017 when set photos of a stuntman portraying Corvus Glaive surfaced.
- When Mjölnir was destroyed in the trailer of Thor: Ragnarok, many fans speculated he would have a new weapon crafted in this movie. Which weapon he would receive was up for debate, but some speculated he would get some version of Stormbreaker. Sure enough...
- More than a few viewers had already guessed that the movie would end with Thanos performing his iconic Badass Fingersnap.
- There was some speculation that Red Skull survived his fight with Captain America in Captain America: The First Avenger. Sure enough, he appears as the keeper of the Soul Stone in this film.
- Shortly after the release of the movie, Joe Russo confirmed fan speculation that Doctor Strange giving up the Time Stone was part of his scenario leading to the one attempt to defeat Thanos that actually works.
- Vision was the most popular candidate to die in fan theories due to possessing the Mind Stone. Sure enough...
- Many also correctly guessed that Loki would die in the first minutes of the movie. He doesn't have a character poster of his own whereas secondary characters like Wong and Okoye have their own, which makes it unusual considering the character's popularity. Not only that, every footage of him in trailers was only from one scene and Word of God previously teased that Infinity War would pick up right where Ragnarok ended.
- Many fans correctly realized that the reason Spider-Man wasn't feeling well before he disintegrated was because his Spider-Sense was warning him of his imminent death.
- Meaningful Release Date: The film was set for release on May 4, 2018 in the United States, which is the same day on which the first Avengers movie was released in 2012. It was later moved to April 27th worldwide. While the anniversary date is lost, this makes it so The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron were released 1092 days apart, as were Age of Ultron and Infinity War.
- It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: An interesting example in that it stems from apparently reversing changes that had already been made. Thor gets a new cybernetic eye from Rocket and builds Stormbreaker to essentially be his replacement for Mjolnir, which many fans felt undermined the Character Development that he went through in Thor: Ragnarok, despite his character arc in that movie placing emphasis on not repeating Odin's mistakes*. The latter is justified in-universe by Thor seeking a new weapon forged specifically to combat Thanos and the Infinity Stones, since the opening of the film demonstrated he can't beat Thanos on his own, though many see it more as a case of Marvel and Disney wanting to maintain the idea of Thor having an iconic weapon.
- It Was His Sled: Thanos uses the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out half of all existence.
- Jerkass Woobie: Thanos himself, Metaphorically True. He was the only one who spoke about a decisive way to save his homeworld, Titan, which got destroyed due to an Overpopulation Crisis. Then, he became a Galactic Conqueror to avert this, which further cemented hatred for him in a galactic scale, to the point that every associate of Thanos ended up betraying him one point or the another. Then, when finally he moves to collect the Infinity Stones to enact his plan, he has to sacrifice Gamora, possibly the only person he actually cared for, in exchange for the Soul Stone. He also loses the rest of his 'children' and his Badass Army to the Avengers, while himself nearly dying at the hands of Thor. When he does wipe out lives of half the universe, he seems to realize how fucked up his plan was, even though he actually won.Gamora: What did it cost?
Thanos: Everything. - Just Here for Godzilla:
- It was theorized the release date for Infinity War was moved up from May to April after the Super Bowl to try and capitalize on the success of Black Panther, as T'Challa and Wakanda feature heavily in the climatic act.
- The subset of MCU fans who feel Evil Is Cool and who tend to go Rooting for the Empire heavily anticipated this film for the coming of Thanos and the promise of his iconic Badass Fingersnap. They were not disappointed.
- The fans that wanted to see their preferred hero in action and specifically their interactions with other heroes they meet for the first time.
- Like You Would Really Do It:
- Though Kevin Feige and the Russos have indicated that deaths in Infinity War will be permanent, fans were skeptical even before the film's release. The sheer breadth of the film's body count makes it seem highly implausible that so many popular and marketable characters will truly be Killed Off for Real; in particular, Black Panther and Spider-Man sequels have already been announced, as well as a third Guardians of the Galaxy film in which Gamora is confirmed to appearnote , despite all three characters being among Infinity War's casualties — indeed, many have said that they could believe that the deaths would stick up until Black Panther died, given how much of a cultural phenomenon his single movie is. While there may be some permanent fatalities in Avengers 4, most fans are expecting that the bulk of the deaths in this film will be undone somehow in the next. Heimdall and to a lesser extent Vision are the only ones nobody is really all that skeptical about. The filmmakers defended this decision by saying that only killing off the second string heroes (the ones who don't have solo movies and thus don't benefit from Contractual Immortality) like Vision, Scarlet Witch, Falcon and Bucky would've been seen as a cop out, since the audience would know the big name characters still had Plot Armor. After a couple months, Dave Bautista ripped off the band aid by stating in no uncertain terms that he'd be back in both the next Avengers and Guardians films.
- Even if you had a little doubt in some of the others coming back, the sheer fact that one of the dead characters was Spider-Man guaranteed that this wasn't permanent, considering he's, y'know, Marvel's mascot as well as one of the most popular and beloved characters in the history of fiction. Not to mention how Marvel made a big and complex deal with an entirely separate film studio just to use him.
- Also, for a specific example: the fake-Thanos dying on Knowhere. No-one would really think that the film's Big Bad would die that early and certainly not that easily. The scene itself doesn't go along with it much either, as while Gamora instinctively reacts as if he really is dead, Quill's reaction is a quiet "That was easy..." as if he can't believe it's really over either. Ironically, Avengers: Endgame actually kills Thanos within the first ten minutes with even less of a fight... at first, anyway.
- Though Kevin Feige
- Love to Hate: Ebony Maw. He might be fairly despicable and a Jerkass but his Faux Affably Evil demeanor and his role as a Hammy Herald to Thanos as well as having the most fleshed out personality of the Black Order has made him pretty popular.
Tropes M to W
- Memetic Badass:
- Hawkeye zig-zags between this and Memetic Loser. Due to his complete absence from the film, many fans joked that the writers had to take Hawkeye out because his presence would single-handedly turn the tide against Thanos. Many fans have even edited posters that makes Hawkeye the sole focus of the film. Even Robert Downey Jr. played along with the joke that he would be the one who will defeat Thanos.
- Thanos already had this reputation among comic fans, but the massive wide success of this movie kicked it into high gear, no doubt due to not only his incredible fighting prowess but to actually winning. It's gotten to the point that "Thanos" has become synonymous with "Invincible Villain" among casual audiences and comic fans alike.
- Memetic Loser:
- Hawkeye's complete absence from any promotional material, to the point that Jeremy Renner himself started posting fan-made images fixing this, threw him right back in this territory after he clawed his way out in Age of Ultron. Though the week of the film's release, Kevin Feige himself said this is actually the best thing that could have happened to him, as he's gone from the guy people make bow and arrow jokes about to someone everyone's clamoring to know the whereabouts of. It's even worse now that he was nowhere to be seen in the film itself and is only mentioned in a throwaway line.
- Hulk suffering a Curbstomp Battle in the opening minutes of the film didn’t cause him to become one (and is generally seen as a highly effective example of The Worf Effect to establish Thanos as a credible threat), but spending the remainder of the film loudly refusing to emerge and fight Thanos’s army certainly did. Even though the intention was that Hulk was tired of being used for just fighting, it didn’t really land with audiences who came to see Hulk as chickening out and being scared of Thanos despite the dire circumstances. Some ended up joking that his turn as Smart Hulk in the following film was the result of Thanos turning him into a meek professor who renounced violence out of fear of getting beaten again.
- Many fans see Star-Lord accidentally screwing up on the battle on Titan as the one event that cost the heroes' victory and led to the film's Downer Ending, leading him to be the subject of mockery.
- Wong returns to guard the Sanctum after the first battle scene. Fans saw this as him chickening out on fighting Thanos (as he is the only character introduced who could have fought him in the climax but didn't besides Eitri and Pepper).
- Misaimed Fandom:
- Hulk shows up in the prologue of the film, fights Thanos, gets defeated and then sent back to Earth. From that point on, Hulk refuses to get out of Banner. It was intended by the authors to mean that Hulk is tired of being used as a weapon or an attack dog, but lots of fans misinterpreted that Hulk had chickened out after being defeated for the first time.
- Some fans agree with Thanos' perception on universal overpopulation and his goal of wiping out half of the universe, while forgetting that planets like Titan aren't well developed enough to handle huge growing populations like Earth can, and that Earth is currently having a decline in fertility rates and overpopulation isn't really much of a current issue that Thanos builds it up to be in Earth's case. In fact, with how much that Endgame proves how wrong Thanos' methods were and how he doesn't seem to do any research on how Earth manages to survive with such a population that Titan can't since he's so invested in his goals makes Thanos look like an idiot with outdated beliefs, especially since his 2014 counterpart in Endgame didn't even check to see if his plan actually helped Earth. Furthermore, there were any number of alternate solutions he could have tried with the Infinity Stones besides simply killing half the universe at random (which isn't even a lasting solution, and realistically kills more than half the universe by collateral damage): for example, he could have made the entire universe wiser so its people would pursue more sustainable practices. This was even entered into canon in What If…? (2021), which shows that if he encountered someone as mature and reasonable as T'Challa rather than Peter Quill, he could easily be talked out of his plan before he truly set out to accomplish it.
- Mis-blamed: Those who didn't like Gamora's death at Thanos's hands tend to blame the writers of this film for shoehorning her death into this film, despite in the sequel it immediately being undone. In truth, James Gunn had considered killing off Gamora back in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and approved of her death in this film.
- Moral Event Horizon: Thanos crosses it when he throws Gamora to her death despite genuinely loving her as a daughter and continuing on despite having been torn up doing so, showing he truly will stop at nothing to enact his mad plan to kill half of all life in the universe.
- Most Wonderful Sound:
- A Theme Music Power-Up is utilized fist-pumpingly well when Steve and friends enter the movie to save Wanda and Vision. As Steve strides out of shadow, the Avengers theme starts playing.
- The Jabari Tribe's signature chant from Black Panther can be heard when T'Challa's party arrives at the battlefield, M'Baku pumping up his men (and the audience) for the imminent war. Later, when the Wakandans are on the verge of triumphing over Thanos' army, M'Baku begins leading the Jabari in another round of their chant.
- T'Challa also leads the entire army in a war chant of "Yibambe" note before charging into battle.
- Likewise, the long-awaited arrival of Thor, Rocket, and Groot is set to the Avengers theme.
- In a movie that's dark and ominous almost the whole way through, the cheerful '70s bounce of "The Rubberband Man" by The Spinners as the Guardians make their first appearance fits this bill.
- Narm Charm:
- Yet again does the Rule of Cool "armies charge each other across an open plane" get busted out in the MCU (Wakandan military and Avengers vs Outriders and Thanos on the outskirts of Wakanda). However, at this point, it's essentially become the screenwriters'* Creator Thumbprint, so it's hard not to smile.
- For how over the top Ebony Maw can be, such moments are part of his overall appeal to the fans.
- It may look a bit goofy but the sight of Peter Dinklage CGI'ed into a 10-foot-tall dwarf has become one of the biggest crowd-pleasing moments of the film.
- Thor swinging Rocket's ship around may be the silliest thing to happen in this movie, but the fact that it leads to the reignition of a dying neutron star turns it into pure awesome.
- Gamora's death is rather awkwardly cut to prevent a hard R rating, but that doesn't keep the scene from being heartfelt as the movie's Signature Scene.
- Quill takes a moment to tell Gamora she should’ve stuck with his plan, and she snarks that they shouldn’t talk about this now, considering that Thanos is holding Gamora hostage. This moment should feel like unnecessary Guardians humor. Instead, both Quill and Gamora are completely hysterical as they say it, and it’s heartbreaking to see.
- Never Live It Down: Star-Lord's popularity among the fandom took a massive hit due to him screwing up the plan to remove the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos, which indirectly led to Thanos's victory. To this day, many fans still haven't forgiven him for this.
- Older Than They Think:
- Thanos justifying the culling of half the universe as preventing overpopulation is frequently cited as an invention of the film. It is in fact taken directly from the comics. The difference is that the film attempts to use this to make Thanos sympathetic and more understandable to general audiences, i.e. he wants to ensure the surviving half stays alive due to having twice as much resources. The comics made it clear that he was tasked with the culling by Death herself who desires a sustainable "harvest", i.e. all life dying would be the end of Death itself so culling half prolongs the process and ensures more deaths over time. This is a double-edged sword because Thanos's logic then no longer applies.
- Thanos being bald under the helmet is canonical in Jim Starlin's The Infinity Gauntlet and likewise while the sleeveless tank-top outfit in the film is unique to the MCU he did wear a similar ensemble in the finale of that story (albeit a sleeveless peasant tunic to go with the whole Cincinnatus conclusion) and later a sleeved tunic in Annihilation. Thanos also wore a similar sleeveless top in his very first appearance, though it was quickly changed to his more iconic look in subsequent issues.
- It may be shocking that a major icon like Spider-Man was a casualty of Thanos's finger snap, but he was also killed in the original Infinity Gauntlet storyline too, albeit under different circumstances (he was directly killed in battle instead of wiped from existence). Black Panther, on the other hand, shares the same fate as his comics counterpart.
- Many fans have criticized Star-Lord's Hair-Trigger Temper decision upon hearing that Thanos killed Gamora, costing the lives of half the universe including his own, as out-of-character for him. However, in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, he did something similar to Ego when he found out that Ego killed his mother, impulsively shooting his father in a moment of Tranquil Fury.
- The ability to travel between dimensions is one of the many powers possessed by both hammers in the comics that the movies have ommited. Movie Stormbreaker is closer in power but still lacks the truly ludicrous range of abilities the comic versions have exhibited.
- More esoteric than the above examples, but this isn't the first time a man named Peter said "I don't want to go," when faced with his imminent death (though that Peter was Driven to Suicide instead).
- The snap itself is one of these, as that was how Thanos activated the Infinity Gauntlet in the comics once he had all the Infinity Gems/Stones.
- Thanos justifying the culling of half the universe as preventing overpopulation is frequently cited as an invention of the film. It is in fact taken directly from the comics
- One-Scene Wonder: Red Skull only appears during one scene as the guardian of the Soul Stone, but seeing how he guides Thanos and explains the need to kill a loved one to him, resulting in Gamora's tear-inducing demise, it's a very memorable scene.
- Only the Author Can Save Them Now: By the end of the film, with all the Infinity Stones in hand, Thanos executes his famed Badass Fingersnap and outright exterminates half of all sentient life in the universe — including several prominent heroes who are or were confirmed to get upcoming films in the MCU. There is no indication just how the few surviving heroes might go about reversing the damage, and for the time being, they are all left on the far side of the Despair Event Horizon while Thanos gets to kick back and enjoy life as a Karma Houdini.
- Only the Creator Does It Right: Presumably why James Gunn was brought in as an executive producer to make sure the Guardians sound and act like they do in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
- Paranoia Fuel: The Erasure scene. Since not everyone erased disappears at exactly the same moment, nothing guarantees you won't be the next person that crumbles in dust. Especially for those who are not Avengers and have no idea why people just randomly disappear besides making the potential connection with the attack in New York.
- Play-Along Meme: Drax claims to have mastered the art of standing so still as to become invisible, despite Quill saying that's not how it works and Mantis immediately saying hi. This spawned the "invisible Drax" meme of not noticing Drax in images.
- Retroactive Recognition: Ariana Greenblatt as Young Gamora.
- Ron the Death Eater: Because of the infamous scene in which Star-Lord botches up the team's plan into defeating Thanos, viewers have been considering him to being a complete asshole for it. However, even if Star-Lord overreacted at the wrong time, his reaction was justified because his love-interest got killed by Thanos and could not help but (understandably) lose his anger at him. It helps that he does show regret afterwards, as opposed to being smug or completely ignorant of his actions. Also, fans are overlooking that after everything he went through in his last two films up until that very point, it actually becomes hard to blame him for what happened. There's also the fact that Thor later makes a mistake that is just as costly (even the Russos consider it as such), but it generally gets overlooked by the fandom.
- Rooting for the Empire: Either you're turned off by the heroes' grim predicament, or you're actively rooting for Thanos to win because, after six years of buildup and given Josh Brolin's impeccable performance, and him being a Villain Protagonist, you feel he pretty much has to win to live up to the hype, even if this is only the first part of a two-part story. The fact he actually does get to win at the end is seen by many as a refreshing breather, and in many viewings has left entire audiences silent and gripped. There are some who do side with Thanos' overpopulation solution, as well.
- Salvaged Story:
- For those fans who felt that Captain America: Civil War glossed over the possible negative repercussions putting the government in direct control of the Avengers could have, the film includes a scene where Secretary Ross attempts to use the Sokovia Accords to make Rhodey arrest the fugitive Avengers at the expense of investigating and combatting Earth's latest alien threat, making Rhodey realize signing them as written probably wasn't the best idea.
- One of the biggest complaints about Doctor Strange is that for the most part the fighting was done with punching and generated weapons like swords and shields, which made the fight scenes functionally no different than the other movies, even if it was justified by Strange's inexperience. Here Strange's fights utilize much more spells and his fight with Thanos is a full-scale, reality-bending Wizard Duel.
- The continued downplaying of the romance between Bruce and Natasha is this for fans who felt they were Strangled by the Red String, with both of them being a bit awkward at their first re-meeting but with no other reference to it.
- The Reality Stone in Thor: The Dark World received flak for seeming limited to Casting a Shadow powers. Here, it's finally used for a bigger variety of Reality Warping effects.
- The film seems to have acknowledged criticisms about Dr. Strange being extremely similar to Tony Stark and even taken advantage of them by giving the two characters good interaction and dynamics, in the form of their insufferable personalities clashing with each other.
- Those who felt that Peter's Stark-made suits gave him too many convenient powers in Spider-Man: Homecoming may be pleased that, despite getting the Iron Spider suit, Peter's webslinging powers are still at the forefront. In fact, the only extra abilities here are the mechanical spider legs that only show up about three times and the ability to survive in space.
- Ragnarok was criticized for Thor basically shrugging off the death of his father, three of his greatest friends, and the destruction of his homeworld. This film shows that the constant deaths of his loved ones (now including Heimdall and Loki) is starting to take their toll on him, as he becomes singularly focused on killing Thanos, to the point of neglecting his other responsibilities, such as protecting the surviving Asgardians and not risking the life of their new king. This comes to a head later in Endgame.
- Building on the previous point, one of the narrative considerations in having a Physical God on a team with several Badass Normals is the difficulty to present a threat that can resonate proportionally with everyone. While Thor certainly had personal investment in the conflict on the previous Avengers moviesnote , his emotional growth in the stories was fairly limited compared to his teammates (the Ultron situation barely registering as a mild annoyance at best, prompting the cosmic side quest to keep him involved); and neither antagonist posed a taxing physical challenge to him either. This movie brutally subverts that problem on both fronts, not only acknowledging the losses sustained in Ragnarok, but piling on them almost immediately, with Thanos subduing him twice, curb-stomping Hulk and forcing him to watch as he murders Heimdall and Loki in quick succession, ensuring that Thor becomes a major driving force in the plot compared to the previous entries.
- This is probably why the Guardians' role in the story was expanded beyond the limited appearance the creators had planned. Their presence serves to distribute the stakes more evenly among the terran and cosmic heroes.
- She Really Can Act: After several films of being a stone-cold serious Defrosting Ice Queen, many reviewers have noted with surprise and praise Zoe Saldaña's performance as Gamora in this film. Her scenes with Thanos — crying with grief when she thinks she's killed him, begging Quill to kill her, realizing that Thanos means to kill her for the Soul Stone — all give her a range of emotion previously unseen.
- Shocking Moments:
- Thanos beating the Hulk down effortlessly within the first couple minutes of the film. The Worf Effect it may be, but used effectively.
- Every time Thanos gets a new Infinity Stone, thereby becoming exponentially stronger, and making it even more of a dire prospect for the heroes to stop him getting them all.
- The Red Skull is the Soul Stone's keeper. You saw nothing like that coming.
- Doctor Strange's duel with Thanos, featuring Strange pulling a Doppelgänger Spin and Thanos creating a mini-black hole.
- While Thanos shows off multiple feats of power with the Infinity Stones during the battle on Titan, he outdoes himself by instantly shattering a huge portion of Titan's moon and telekinetically throwing the broken-off chunks at the heroes. Yep, Thanos casts Meteor.
- Everything after Thanos arrives on Earth, from his one-sided curbstombing of the remaining defenders, him using the Time Stone to reverse Vision's Heroic Suicide and brutally taking the Mind Stone from him, and finally, the erasing of half the population in the universe.
- Stormbreaker powering through a beam from the Infinity Gauntlet with all of the Infinity Stones and lodging itself firmly in Thanos' chest. Thanos himself admits to Thor that, had the attack been a headshot, Thor would've killed him. What this means in regards to Thor's power with the weapon is so huge it almost feels as if the movie didn't do it enough justice.
- The casualties of the Snappening taking out some of the heaviest-hitters — including Black Panther, most of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, and Spider-Man — are bound to take anyone who was just expecting B-list characters to die for a loop.
- Signature Scene:
- From the first teaser trailer, only shown to those present at the Marvel panel at the D23 2017 expo and San Diego Comic-Con (meaning everything from the trailer was spread through word of mouth): The one thing that every person and news outlet has mentioned? Thanos throwing a moon at the Avengers.
- The group shot of the reformed Avengers and Black Panther leading the Wakandan army against a horde of Outriders is prominently featured in the first trailer and was frequently used to advertise the film. Ironically, it's not in the actual movie.
- Thor with Stormbreaker arriving into Wakanda is considered the film's most triumphant shot and is frequently featured in TV commercials.
- The scene of Thanos's fingersnap causing all of his victims to turn into ash one after the other became a major element of pop culture, due to falling under It Was His Sled and generating multiple memes and parodies.
- Special Effect Failure:
- When Thanos grabs Loki by the throat, his hand doesn't react to Loki's smaller mass as intricately as it should. The end result makes it seem like he's strangling someone the same size as himself.
- One shot of Mantis has Pom Klementieff's normal eyes visible rather than Mantis' fully-black eyes.
- The leadup to the Wakanda battle has some very shaky visual effects in places. The green screen effects are very noticeable but Bruce in the Hulkbuster armor stands out as looking very fake and photoshopped in.
- When Gamora is plummeting to her death, while screaming out for Thanos, during a close-up, it's clear that Zoe Saldana is laying down on possibly a green screen floor, with her right arm just out of camera shot, presumably supporting herself off the floor.
- When Okoye and Black Widow move to fight Proxima Midnight, the angle with which Okoye points her spear makes it pretty obvious it is a resin prop.
- While all members of the Black Order are portrayed by motion capture CGI, most of them have pretty good effects. However, Proxima Midnight, the smallest and most human-looking member of the order, tends to stick out like a sore thumb precisely because she's the smallest and most human-looking member, especially during the brief exchange at Wakanda's forcefield.
- Spiritual Successor:
- The film has been called the MCU equivalent to the Rogue One with the high death count of named heroes at the hands of the villain.
- It's also been compared to The Empire Strikes Back, given how it concludes on an unambiguously Downer Ending with the bad guy winning.
- The fingersnap scene has been called by many people to be the Marvel Cinematic Universe's equivalent to the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones, as several beloved heroic characters die in rapid succession with the villain coming out triumphant. Coincidentally, Peter Dinklage who plays Tyrion in the show is also present in the movie as Eitri.
- Spoiled by the Format: A number of the characters who died in this movie have sequel movies of their own already announced. So you have to know they'll be coming back somehow.
- Squick: Thor opening his eye socket to insert the optic implant. Granted, it's a very quick scene, but you get to see the insides and it's still gross enough. His cybernetic eye also twitches a lot trying to correct itself which can be unnerving too. And then Rocket adds that he should have washed it first.
- Suspiciously Similar Song: The motif that plays when Thanos emerges in Wakanda is almost identical to the opening of ‘Velstadt, The Royal Aegis’ from Dark Souls II.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: As with all comic book movies, a few things have made comic readers disappointed.
- Remember that line in The Avengers about Thanos courting Death? Just a Mythology Gag after all. There is no mention of courting his Mistress Death, as he wants to kill half the universe's denizens merely to stop overpopulation, in order to save the remaining half. This motivation is actually explored in the comics, but even then it's intrinsically tied to Thanos's love for Death; he wants to ensure more deaths in the long run, not save more lives. The changes have drawn some criticism, mainly because removing Death from the equation and just making it about saving lives invites Fridge Logic regarding the long-term success and feasibility of Thanos's plan. (For instance, given that the human population alone grows exponentially, Thanos only set Earth back a couple decades if he removed half of it, even taking the extra losses from the ensuing chaos into account.) In short (upcoming Reset Button aside), it's contested if movie Thanos accomplished anything in the long run unlike comic Thanos. Related to this is that the limits of the full-power Infinity Gauntlet were not clearly established, so you have people thinking stuff like why he doesn't save more lives by increasing the universe's resources instead of halving the universal population. In the comics, it could create matter out of nothing, but the movie doesn't say either way.
- The Ebony Maw in the Infinity crossover is a powerhouse who manages to play the Illuminati and Thanos himself like a fiddle, and continues to manipulate Thanos for a long time after. In the film, he instead appears to be completely subservient to Thanos, and is written out early.
- The MCU's downplaying of Peter Parker's relationship with Uncle Ben in favor of his invented hero-worship/student-mentor one with Tony Stark continues, with Uncle Ben not even getting implied allusions like in Civil War and Homecoming. Some Spider-fans were put off by Peter's death scene with Mr. Stark's name on his lips, comparing it to Uncle Ben's death in the first Sam Raimi movie where he dies saying Peter's name. It's like a weird mirror showing Uncle Ben's virtual erasure.
- Remember that line in The Avengers about Thanos courting Death? Just a Mythology Gag after all. There is no mention of courting his Mistress Death, as he wants to kill half the universe's denizens merely to stop overpopulation, in order to save the remaining half. This motivation is actually explored in the comics, but even then it's intrinsically tied to Thanos's love for Death; he wants to ensure more deaths in the long run, not save more lives. The changes have drawn
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Considering the movie has a cast over thirty characters strong, it's to be expected some characters get the shorter end of the stick compared to others.
- Many fans feel that Drax is underutilized in the movie. His motivation to kill Thanos for the murder of his wife and child is only briefly addressed, when it could have been an opportunity to explore his relationship with Thanos. Instead, he is primarily used for the movie's comic relief alongside Mantis. What's worse, he gets erased from existence by Thanos's Badass Fingersnap which means it would not be explored in the sequel either.
- The Children of Thanos in general. Praised for their sinister designs and how they are connected to Thanos, many fans were left disappointed at how quickly they were eventually dispatched by the heroes one by one. Perhaps the worst offender is Ebony Maw. In the comics, Maw was the Wild Card among them, with ambitions to usurp Thanos himself and actually succeed. In the movie, however, he's the first to get shafted before he could contribute more to the plot. In general, they only existed to play their part as antagonists for the Earthbound heroes until Thanos arrives, and get to do little else to explore their characters.
- Unlike the other victims that were killed by Thanos, Falcon barely has any screen time. Worse, he is separated from the people who were closest to him (Black Widow, Winter Soldier and Captain America) when he disappears.
- Black Panther and his fellow Wakandans feel underutilized. Many have pointed out this was a sign that the Black Panther movie's monster success wasn't quite anticipated by the studio and thus the part of T'Challa and his fellow countrymen were kept minimal in Infinity War.
- The Hulk certainly gets the short end of the stick in this film. After suffering The Worf Effect against Thanos, he reverts back to Banner and refuses to emerge, even in potentially life-threatening situations. Meanwhile, Bruce himself doesn't exactly contribute much to the story either, with him using the Hulkbuster armor not really going anywhere outside of him defeating Cull Obsidian.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- The destruction (or half-destruction?) of Xandar, which the Guardians of the Galaxy saved in their first movie, happens off-screen; when Thanos shows himself at the very beginning of this movie, he already has the Power Stone. The creators have gone on record and stated that they intentionally left it out to prevent the movie from becoming too repetitive.
- Although it's somewhat justified by the two-year Time Skip between movies, the difficulties that Rhodey must have had adjusting to his cybernetic legs after being crippled in Captain America: Civil War are completely glossed over, as are any enmity he would have had with Sam Wilson and the Vision, the two people who are directly responsible for his crippling injuries. Instead the movie completely ignores the fact that the last time he saw those characters, they were beating the shit out of each other, he just greets them like well-loved old friends, and Rhodey is back to walking and fighting as normal.
- Similarly, the movie completely glosses over explaining how the Vision went rogue, joined up with Scarlet Witch, and formed a romantic relationship with her (even though the Sokovia Accords mean he's technically supposed to be hunting her down and bringing her to justice), something that could easily have driven the plot of a whole movie on its own. There's not even a cursory mention of how the last time they were together onscreen, they were on opposite sides of a major battle.
- Too Cool to Live:
- Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange, two heroes who did the most damage to Thanos when he almost had all the Infinity Stones besides Thor and Iron Man, are among the heroes who were erased from existence by Thanos.
- The Children of Thanos. They were powerhouses and had potentially interesting and complex stories ripe for exploration, only to be quickly dispatched one by one by the heroes in the movie. Word of God even stated that they were shafted out of fear they could overshadow Thanos himself.
- Loki and Heimdall, two of the most popular Asgardians, are among the only heroes killed by Thanos whose deaths are not expected to be undone.
- Vision, who had been a rather notable Adaptational Badass and charming character in his own right, is killed twice in the movie itself after spending most of it being a Living MacGuffin.
- Unexpected Character:
- Given that they're relatively new, were used almost exclusively by a single writer in the comics and are, well, dead, nobody was really expecting the Black Order to appear in anything else ever again. Despite the name change to "the Children of Thanos", they appear in Infinity War.
- A meta example with casting. While Carrie Coon was a surprising choice for Proxima Midnight, nobody was expecting Michael James Shaw to be revealed to be Corvus Glaive, especially when you consider he's best known for the Constantine TV series and that fans were pegging Peter Dinklage to voice Corvus.
- Speaking of Dinklage, the main guesses for his role before the movie came out were a voice acting role for Corvus Glaive or Pip The Troll, a cosmic character with comic links to Gamora and Thanos. He actually plays the dwarf Eitri (who ironically is giant in the movie), a character usually just connected to Thor.
- More like unexpected item, but after Mjölnir got destroyed in his last solo-outing, Thor gets a new weapon - an axe called Stormbreaker. Stormbreaker's appearance is a surprise as it's comic book owner, Beta Ray Bill hasn't appeared in the MCU yet.
- Nobody expected Red Skull to show up as the guardian of the Soul Stone, especially since the character hasn't appeared since Phase 1 and had been gone for so long that many fans began to presume that he was dead.
- More like an unexpected spell, but those well-versed in the comics may be surprised to see Doctor Strange bind Thanos with the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, given the namesake of the spell is the deity that empowers the Juggernaut, a character Marvel Studios did not have the rights to as of filming. That this version of Strange doesn't engage in Calling Your Attacks like the comics one probably helped.
- Viewers in Mourning: After Loki's death in, many of his fans added little suns to their nicknamesnote and used multiple hashtags (such as bringlokibackalive or undyingfidelity) to express their disappointment and grief. They flooded Marvel's social media accounts to the point that The Russo Brothers half-jokingly admitted that they had to temporarily withdraw from social media to avoid fans' wrath, and later said killing Loki was the most impactful thing they've ever done in terms of audience reactions. Some of the comments on twitter or weibo remaining since May 2018 are pretty telling. The directors' page on Wikipedia has been repeatedly vandalized, with "murderers" being added to their occupation list. Thousands of viewers in China vowed to stop watching Marvel movies altogether if Loki is gone for good, fans across Russia were attaching hand-made drawings of Loki to the Infinity War official posters in the movie theaters (he was missing from all of them), and there was an abundance of implausible theories of how He's Just Hiding. In Loki's own spin-off show, [[spoiler: some of those theories would be vindicated, as there's an episode featuring an Older and Wiser Loki who really did fake his death.
- Visual Effects of Awesome: This film wasn't nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 91st Academy Awards for nothing.
- Thanos was explicitly designed for this film to be the most realistic, physics-abiding CG creation in MCU history and it shows. His movements have genuine weight to them and as shown in close-ups, the little details come out — his arteries pulse slightly over the exposed muscles in his arms, and his purple skin is even slightly marred with scars, freckles, and age spots!
- On the scenery side, there's plenty of beautiful shots in the movie, but the Forge of Nidavellir stands out, especially when Thor and Rocket restart the Forge and by spinning the gigantic wheels around the Forge itself. The scenes where the star turns bright again and where Thor opens the focusing lens of the forge are just stunning to watch.
- The victims of Thanos's fingersnap disintegrating into ash looks stunning and the ash seamlessly interacts with the environment and the actors very well. For how prevalent the meme is, none of the variants have managed to replicate the original effect.
- Thanos was explicitly designed for this film to be the most realistic, physics-abiding CG creation
- What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Oh look, a movie with all of our favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe characters joining together! Seems like a fun family outing, huh? Not only is this movie Darker and Edgier than your average PG-13 superhero film, but the film ends with Thanos collecting the Infinity Stones and wiping out half of the life of the universe. Because of there being not much other family-friendly films in theaters the week this was released, many parents opted to take their little ones to this, ending in many children leaving the theater in tears.
- Woolseyism:
- The French dub has Tony use "Voldemort" as an insult to Ebony Maw in place of "Squidward". This is likely because Squidward's French name, "Carlo", is so ordinary that the joke would fly over French audiences' heads. The same applies to Squid's German name, "Thaddäus". This translated joke arguably works even better than the original, since Ebony Maw does actually look more like Voldemort than Squidward.
- The French dub also uses "crise d'arborescence" as a pun on "crise d'adolescence" to describe Groot, well, being a treenager.
- The Dutch subtitles have Rocket call Groot an "eikel", which means both "acorn" and "jerk".
- WTH, Costuming Department?:
- Thanos' new outfit has garnered mixed responses, with some thinking it looks cool, and others joking that it looks like he's wearing gym clothes or a tank top.
- Natasha now sporting bleached hair has drawn ire of fans, especially since she is now blonde and uses batons, a lot like a certain other Marvel character especially since said character already exists in the MCU.
